Pyrophobia
by Burning 'Til There's Dark Blue
Summary: Post-Aliyah. Ziva only feared one thing.


**Disclaimer: **_I don't own NCIS._

*~*~*

_Pyrophobia – _the fear of fire.

*~*~*

"Abby, what are you doing?" Ziva asked, arms crossed, with a look of confusion across her face. Tony stood behind her, almost protectively, McGee stood next to Abby with a look of mischief on his face, and Gibbs just stood there. Abby smiled as she put several medium-sized buckets on the table and poured something from a large metal container into each of them, smiling somewhat maniacally as she did.

"This is how our murderer got rid of the majority of the evidence – or at least how he thinks he did." Abby explained, crumpling up several sheets of old newspaper and putting them into the buckets. The others watched her with interest as she pulled out a lighter.

Abby flicked the lighter on and Ziva took a step backwards without realizing she did so. Tony put his hand on her shoulder, stopping her.

In the next second there was a _whoosh _as Abby set the contents of each of the buckets on fire.

Nobody expected Ziva to half-leap-half-stumble backwards at the sight of the flames, push Tony in front of her, and retreat to the corner of the room, putting several pieces of expensive forensic machinery between her and the flames, and stand with her back to the wall, hyperventilating.

The others rushed over to the now-panicking Ziva, who seemed to have lost her ability to talk coherently. Instead, she sank to the ground, curled up like a small child, her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around herself, still staring at where the fire had been with a look of absolute terror in her eyes. It wasn't until Abby poured water over the flames, extinguishing them that she looked up at the small crowd around her, panic still evident on her face.

Tony held his hands out to her and she reached up to grab them. He pulled her up so that she was standing, and then she collapsed against him, now crying and still shivering in fear. Unsure of what else to do, he wrapped his arms around her in an attempt to comfort her.

"Ziva, shh, calm down. It's okay. Nothing's gonna hurt you." He whispered into her ear. Keeping one arm wrapped around her shoulders and another on her arm, he led her out of the lab. Ziva didn't look at anyone as she passed by, but Tony sent them a stare that said "Go on with your work; this is personal."

Gibbs, McGee, and Abby stood, confused and worried, in the lab.

*~*~*

The entire situation was very strange, what with Ziva's unexplained breakdown upon seeing the fire and Tony being the only one she would let near her.

Tony managed to lead her into the freezing-cold autopsy, where Ducky and Palmer were evidently reading textbooks. Both of them looked up at the sound of the door opening, but seeing the state Ziva was in, put the books down and left the room.

Ziva sank back down to the floor again, leaning against the metal autopsy drawers. Tony sat down next to her, wrapping one arm around her shoulder protectively, looking at her with honest concern on his face.

"Zi, what's wrong? What happened back there?" he asked. Ziva struggled to regain any composure that she could, struggling to speak, pausing every few seconds to inhale, still trying hard not to cry.

"When … when I was in Som… Somalia…" she gasped, stuttering slightly as she tried to speak, "Th… they would bring... bring gasoline into the room…pour it on the floor… they would int… interrogate me…those stupid cig… cigarettes…and if I didn't c…cooperate… they would throw the cigarettes into the… th… the gasoline…and it would be on fi…fire… and I couldn't move. I was tied up"

She paused to breathe, and regain some composure " And I would scre… scream as loudly as I could but… it never worked. They… they would come back… and I wouldn't ta… talk. And every day the fire… it would get closer… I thought I would die." She finally managed to say. Tony couldn't say anything.

"And now… whenever I see it…I think… I always think that I won't… that I won't be able to get away in t… time. It just… terrifies me." Ziva finally admitted, leaning over to rest her head on Tony's shoulder. He wrapped his other arm around her.

"I won't let it hurt you, Zi." He whispered.

*~*~*

It took 30 minutes for Tony to calm Ziva down, and another five for Ziva to wash her face. When both of them were sure that she wasn't going to have another breakdown, they walked back to the lab, with him still standing protectively in front of her.

Gibbs was sitting in one of the chairs, drinking coffee, Abby was going off on a worried rant, asking countless questions, and McGee was sitting calmly next to her, answering whatever questions made sense to him. All three of them looked up at the arrivals, questions on their faces.

_Somalia, _Tony mouthed, and the comprehension was evident on everyone's face.

*~*~*

"You're sure he's here?" Tony asked as Ziva drove recklessly through the streets of D.C. "I mean, psycho arsonist murderers don't stay in one place for that long."

"GPS tracking on his cell phone puts him at the warehouse." Ziva said calmly, swerving another car and driving very close to the Autobahn's speed limit. Tony gulped, gripping the sides of his chair.

Ziva pulled off the highway, driving across the grass straight into the warehouse's parking lot as Tony silently prayed that no highway patrolman would decide that it was a good time to pull them over, although the extra backup would be nice. The somewhat insane Israeli made a 180° to park the car, and before it had fully stopped opened the door and ran towards the building, aiming her gun at the door. Tony had enough common sense to turn the car off before he got out of the car and kicked the door shut, then ran over to the other door and closed it. By the time he had finished with all of this, Ziva was almost to the warehouse and he had to sprint to catch up with her, not even bothering to pull out his own gun until they were standing across from each other at either side of the door. Ziva nodded and Tony turned to kick the door open. The two of them ran in, both shouting "NCIS!"

The suspect was pouring gasoline along the walls, and he froze as the two agents ran in. Before either of them could react, he pulled out a lighter and threw it as hard as he could against the floor, then ran as the fire leaped up the walls.

Tony turned to run to the door, then looked behind him to see Ziva standing where she had been, unable to move.

"Ziva, come on!" he shouted, jumping backwards as the flames jumped out at him. The other agent stayed frozen. "Ziva!"

He realized that she couldn't move, that she was going to have a panic attack at any time, so he ran over and grabbed her arm, then turned to run back to the door, pulling her along as she stared at the flames in panic. Tony pulled her so that she was standing in front of him, and with his hands on her arms practically shoved her towards the door.

The scaffolding started to collapse, nearly hitting the two. Ziva finally broke out of her trance and screamed, putting her hands above her head. Tony realized that they weren't going to get out in time unless Ziva actually started running, or unless he dragged her out the door. He chose the second option, grabbing her hand and sprinting, practically dragging her behind him.

They were barely out of the building when the building imploded, the roof collapsing and the metal walls starting to melt. Tony pulled Ziva towards the edge of the parking lot, and the two of them turned to stare at the bright orange flames, which were leaping to the sky, black smoke billowing a hundred feet in the air.

He barely noticed the growing sound of emergency sirens, or the dozens of cars that were suddenly around them. He barely noticed when the firemen started to put out the inferno, or when the cops started yelling at the two of them, which Tony stopped by pulling out his badge and showing it to the angry LEOs. He barely noticed when Gibbs and McGee arrived on the scene, spotted the suspect in the crowd, and chased after him, or Ziva's ever-growing panic attack.

He did, however, notice when Ziva fainted, as he barely managed to catch her in time. There were suddenly paramedics surrounding them, trying to get Ziva onto the gurney. Tony jogged alongside them as they put an oxygen mask on the unconscious agent, and was about to get into the ambulance with Ziva and the paramedics when they stopped him.

"You can't go with her unless you're family." One of them said, standing in front of him to prevent him from getting into the ambulance.

"I'm her fiancée." Tony replied coolly. Only then did the EMTs notice the diamond ring on Ziva's left hand. The one blocking Tony from entering stepped aside, apologizing, and closed the door behind him.

*~*~*

It would be an understatement to say that the doctors and nurses didn't know every single person on or affiliated with Gibb's team, and vice versa. It would also be an understatement to say that the very large group of people in the waiting room was worried about Ziva.

So when the tired-looking agent finally walked into the waiting room, with more than a few bandages wrapped around her arms and legs, and covering various cuts on her face, she shouldn't have been as startled as she was when at least six people all stood up and hugging her. Luckily, the majority of them had enough common sense to let go of her after a few seconds, except for Abby, who was on a tirade about how worried she had been and what did Ziva think she was going to do and complete idiocy.

Tony walked out several seconds later, with more bandages than Ziva but looking much less tired. Abby noticed his entrance and finally released Ziva, who walked quickly to Tony and threw her arms around his neck.

And then, blatantly ignoring the fact that Gibbs was watching and Rule #12, Ziva stood on her toes so that she and Tony could kiss.

The two of them should have expected the headslaps from Gibbs and the sudden conversation.

At least until Abby noticed Ziva's ring.

*~*~*

**A/N: **Okay. I came up with this in the middle of gym class, because I kept thinking that Ziva really doesn't show any sign of PTSD on the show this season, and if it seems like she's out of character, you would be too if forced to confront your worst fear. And she's cried before… maybe 5 times. I have to go count now. And I also have to watch Tuesday's episode. So review, and adios!


End file.
